southern christmas show

My weekend ranged from closing the sparkly chapter of my life with the Breaking Dawn finale Friday night to spending a few hours at the Southern Women’s Christmas show in Charlotte yesterday.

I haven’t done a weekend recap post in quite some time and it seems like a good weekend to share.

Breaking Dawn

Friday night my sister and I saw Breaking Dawn Part 2. In the past year or so my obsession with the Twilight franchise had waned but I needed to see this last movie for closure. Yes, it was a thing that needed closure. I went into with “I just hope it’s better than the first.” This movie franchise has left a lot to be desired, yes? I’m already wishing for remakes. But ya’ll, I was pleasantly surprised. In fact, more than surprised, I was downright satisfied.

Finally Bella and Edward seemed to fit in their own skin. I think partly because they were portraying now-equal and happy characters and partly because Kristen and Rob had grown has actors too. It was a beautiful thing to see. The movie hit on all the important moments—Bella meeting Renesmee, Bella knocking Jac0b around, the cabin, Charlie. And yes, the final scene with the Volturi. I refuse to spoil it but I think it might go down as one of my favorite movie viewing moments ever. EVER. It was genius what they did. The final scene when Edward finally sees Bella’s memories and we could experience them too was just a perfect ending. I’m walking away from Twilight a happy participant to all the madness.

Training Tucker

Saturday morning we took Tucker to dog training. Did I tell you yet we put him in training? Turns out Tucker will do just about anything for a treat and he is one of the best in class. He’s a smart dog. Just too much energy for his own good.

Serving Thanksgiving

Saturday afternoon the girls and I served with Serving Meals Ministry. We passed out Thanksgiving meals to a low-income section of town. It was one of my favorite hours of the whole weekend. We thought we were going to be serving at tables in a fellowship hall but we actually took meals in to-go boxes door to door. It sounds kind of scary and campy but let me assure you it was not. When you have something to offer for free that is good, it immediately takes the pressure off. The residents were grateful and extremely nice.

I’ve had this concept of lights for the past few weeks. As a handful of us were each taking a door in one of the sections of the townhouses, I could not help but think about light. You know when you’re going into a dark room and the door is opening and as the door opens, each thing in the room is illuminated bit by bit? That’s what I saw when a group of us went door to door. It was like a door was opening on the townhouses, each home being illuminated as we visited. A beautiful picture of God’s light shining into the darkness and one that I will not soon forget.

I’m only sharing because I want to first share that it’s not scary and in fact, very fun, and second so locals might be aware. Serving Meals Ministry does this once a month and needs volunteers. Let me know if you’re interested and maybe next time we can go together!

Playing Chuck E. Cheese

Saturday evening I took the girls to Chuck E. Cheese. Lexi’s birthday was a few weeks ago and Emma turns 10 tomorrow. I’m having small break downs as I go about this matter. I can’t handle the double-digits apparently. I still remember sitting at our oak table blowing out my own 10 candles thinking to myself, “Goodbye, single digit years.” It feels impossible that Emma is turning 10. To cope, we’re doing lots of celebrating.

We went to Great Wolf Lodge last month, I took them to get their nails done at a kids spa last weekend, they each are having sleepovers and on the spur of the moment, I took them by myself to Chuck E. Cheese Saturday night.

I realized it’s highly likely that Chuck E. Cheese isn’t going to be cool soon and as maniacal as that place is, I really was going to miss their excitement over it. So we played skee ball and they wasted their coins on fake ID cards and we ate bad pizza and drank soft drinks. It was everything people love to hate about Chuck E. Cheese. And since my wallet was screaming for more punishment, we hopped down to the shopping mall strip to Party City where we got all the supplies for Emma’s party tomorrow. I can’t say I regret a single penny.

Shopping Christmas

Sunday after church we went to the Southern Women’s Christmas Show. Somehow I had managed to skip this event all my life. But wow, Charlotte knows how to put on a Christmas Show. For the uninitiated, it’s just a bazaar type thing but that actually have it decorated so it looks like you’re walking through a village of shops. There are full rooms decorated and Christmas scenes and it’s just very pretty and exciting and inspiring, albeit a bit much for the kids. Three building full of vendors literally put Lexi on the floor. They were definitely ready to go after three hours but if you ask, they loved it as much as we did. I bought some sparkly red decorations to add to the tree and I’m really excited to decorate this year.

Watching Hart of Dixie

And between all that, I was obsessively catching up with Hart of Dixie. And that’s a whole other post. Seriously, I want to do a whole other post on it.

Hope you guys had a great weekend and are preparing for a lovely Thanksgiving weekend. I’ll be back tomorrow crying all over my keyboard about Emma’s 10 birthday!